This December marks the 95th anniversary of librarianship in Gzhatsk. Epochs have changed, paper has practically given way to the tablet, but the spirit of the library as a treasury of the most interesting, unusual, and new has remained unchanged.
In a few days, the Central District Library in the city of Gagarin will celebrate its 95th anniversary. Similar anniversaries are now celebrated by other public libraries operating in small towns of our country, because in the late 1910s - early 1920s, the appearance of libraries and reading rooms in cities and villages became a truly mass phenomenon.
Soon after the October Revolution, V.I. Lenin noted the creation of libraries in all, even not very large, populated areas of the country as one of the most important tasks of the new government: “We must use the books that we have and begin to create an organized network of libraries that would help the people use every available one.” We have a book." Soon a decree was issued on a unified library network, and courses for library workers were opened to train personnel.
Mass eradication of illiteracy began. New professions appeared in the country - huts and booksellers, whose task was to promote new Soviet literature among the population. The huts no longer waited for visitors, they walked around the courtyards, went to field camps and logging sites, inviting people to evenings in the reading huts and convincing them that it was never too late to learn to read and write. And the reading huts, in turn, turned into a kind of rural clubs: they not only read books and newspapers, they had conversations, held lectures, read reports, they developed amateur artistic activities and even showed the first films.
In 1918, the head of the extracurricular subdepartment under the Gzhatsk Soviet of Deputies, D. Gorshkov, wrote in the newspaper “Izvestia of the Gzhatsk Council...” (No. 32):
“In order to raise the cultural level of the population, the extracurricular subdivision considers it necessary to implement the following activities. In the city - the creation of a central library and a free reading room with a selection of books that could satisfy, if possible, all residents of the city and county, from the ordinary peasant to the fully developed intellectual.
Despite the fact that the collected books contain a lot of valuable and useful materials, it still cannot be called a complete library. For example, the departments of politics, economics and agriculture are poorly represented in it. There is precisely what young social thought is so greedily looking for.
In addition, for the reading room, one constantly has to subscribe to newspapers and magazines, which the latter cannot do without, like a person without air.
The organization of a book warehouse and kiosks has broad propaganda and developmental significance. This is a necessary addition to the library, which can never satisfy the demands of the reading public throughout the county.
Books, newspapers and magazines will expand the political horizons of the population, give them a whole range of theoretical data on issues of applied knowledge and force all living and conscious forces in the county to take the path of social construction. The selection of books is made under the direct supervision of figures of the left social movement and the requests of the local population.”
The Gzhatsk district library was organized on December 15, 1919. Initially, it was located in a building on Herzen Street, but in the 20s and 30s it repeatedly moved from one premises to another, until it finally settled in the Tikhvin Church (complex of the Annunciation Cathedral).
Unfortunately, there is no reliable archival data on the history of libraries in the district, but from the meager sources we can conclude that in addition to the district library in Gzhatsk, libraries in those years also appeared in the villages of Prechistoye, Karmanovo and Tokarevo.
At the time of the opening of the district library, its collection consisted of only 2,331 books, but despite this, it quickly became the cultural center of Gzhatsk. In 1923, Nikolai Vasilyevich Shklomin was appointed head of the library. Despite the numerous difficulties of the first years of the formation of Soviet power, the lack of funds and the small variety of books published in the country, he managed to constantly increase the book fund. Nikolai Vasilyevich maintained contacts with libraries in Moscow, Leningrad and Smolensk. Literature was sent from these cities to Gzhatsk at his request. Thanks to the efforts of the director, by 1941 the library consisted of 20 thousand volumes. The number of readers grew by leaps and bounds.
After the start of the Great Patriotic War, library workers hid their main wealth - books - in the basement of the Tikhvin Church. Unfortunately, this did not help preserve them: during the years of occupation, some of the books were destroyed, others were stolen from home by Gzhatka residents. It took several years to restore the library after the end of the war. Books to replenish the book stock were then sent from distant regions, and private individuals also brought them.
Over the years of work as the head of the district library, Nikolai Shklomin was repeatedly awarded with diplomas. His name is included in the Book of Honor for Workers of Cultural and Educational Institutions. In 1952, he handed over the library to Yuri Alekseevich Sobolevsky, who, like his predecessor, did a lot for its development.
In 1963, the library’s book stock numbered 26 thousand books, and by 1975 their number had increased to 33 thousand. However, in the damp and cold building of the Tikhvin Church, books quickly became unusable, and employees had to work in fur coats and felt boots all year round. Naturally, in such conditions there was no question of holding any mass events. Only on the eve of its 70th anniversary in 1989, after two moves, the library celebrated a housewarming in the building on the central square of the city, where it is located to this day.
The rapid development of computer technology has posed new tasks for library workers, which they have successfully completed. Today, within its walls, play and developmental events are regularly held for children who willingly come to the “book house”, later becoming its regular visitors. There is an information center for youth audiences. Visitors of all ages come to meet writers and poets, musicians and artists. A club of Gagarin poets operates on the basis of the library. In the spirit of the times, the “Night at the Museum” event is held for the townspeople.
The library today, like 95 years ago, remains a cultural center visited by Gagarin residents of all ages - from preschoolers to retirees.
Evgeniy FEDORENKOV,
PHOTO - from the archive of the deputy director of the library Galina SHEKHVATOVA
Malta attracted special attention two years ago when a family of mammoths appeared at the entrance to an ancient village. Surprisingly, many residents of the Angara region did not even suspect that one of the largest sites of the Paleolithic era was located next to them. It all started with the fact that back in 1929, the peasant Savelyev decided to deepen the cellar at his home. During excavations, he discovered a huge old bone, which, however, did not impress him. He threw it over the fence, and the local boys immediately found a use for it, adapting it as a sleigh. However, the head of the village reading room took a closer look at the curiosity and reported it to Irkutsk. The famous archaeologist Mikhail Gerasimov immediately went to Malta and discovered an ancient site. This news stunned the entire scientific world. Such unique artifacts as miniature female figurines, Venuses, a child’s burial with rich grave goods, and a bead made from a mineral called “tiger’s eye” were recovered from the bowels of the Malta soil.
The church collapsed in silence
The beautiful large village of Malta is divided into two parts - the right and left banks of the Belaya River. The right side is more modern. It was formed after the railroad was built. All socially significant objects are located here: the local administration, a school, the House of Culture, the Maltinskoye mineral water production enterprise and the remains of a sanatorium that once thundered throughout the region.
But the left side is a real historical treasury. Along the main street - Lenin - stretches the former Moscow Highway, along which convicts and military personnel moved several centuries ago. During the journey, they made a short stop in Malta: they rested and changed horses. The Maltinians recreated this episode from the history of the village on one of the village holidays. Dressed in rags and tatters, they depicted how convicts moved along the Moscow highway.
On the corner of the street there still stands a two-story old house in which there was a hotel near the tract. According to residents, Anton Chekhov once stayed there. Then, many years later, the building was equipped as a maternity hospital.
It is known that not all convicts survived the long journey. Often martyrs found their final refuge here. They were buried without a funeral service, and it was for this reason that the residents decided to build a church in the village. They sent a petition to Emperor Alexander I and, without waiting for an answer, began collecting money.
Initially, it was decided to build a two-aisle temple, but over time the plans changed, and as a result, a large three-aisle temple was erected. The main chapel is in the name of the Ascension of the Lord, the second is in the name of the Kazan Mother of God, and the third is in the name of St. Innocent. The temple was built conscientiously. Large antique bricks made from local clay were used for its construction. In order for them to hold tighter, a huge amount of eggs was added to the solution. Residents themselves carried them from their yards. Everyone wanted to contribute to a good cause.
In 1810, two smaller chapels were consecrated, and the turn of the main one came only 23 years later, as there were difficulties with money. A parochial school was also opened near the temple. 10 people were the first to graduate. Moreover, according to the recollections of old-timers, there were more boys than girls at that time. The temple served in its original form until the revolution.
During the Civil War of 1918, it was used for zeroing artillery pieces by both the Red and White. The church was shelled from all sides. In February 2020, when Malta was under martial law, the Reds fired back from the Kappelites from the bell tower.
In 1933 the temple was closed. Part of the premises was fenced off and equipped for storage, and the church territory was given over to sports grounds and buildings. For some time, there was a brick factory office on the second floor of the temple, then it was given over to a club. Workers of Malta culture showed films and organized dances. Here the population gathered for gatherings. During the time when the temple was not used for its intended purpose, it was gradually dismantled for needs. Since the brick was of very good quality, in the 30s and 40s the military took it to the barracks.
The last one to temporarily find refuge in the church was a general store. True, he did not work for long, and after the building was empty, it began to collapse. During the 2009 earthquake, most of the walls of the temple crumbled, and two years later only ruins remained.
It was very calm and quiet that day. At about 17.30 they heard a terrible crash and the temple collapsed. On my own. Apparently, his time has come. No one went there or looked there anymore,” says Galina Kolomiets, curator of the school’s local history museum. - It's a pity, of course, the church. Architectural monument. Maybe someday a new temple will be built in its place. After all, this place is prayed for, holy.
Venuses, beads and ancient burials
Malta is also home to the world-famous site of ancient man. The story of how a local resident dug up a mammoth bone has long turned into a legend that the older generation tells to the younger ones. For several decades, expeditions visited here every season. From the ground, archaeologists recovered the bones of a mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, deer antlers, tools of primitive people, jewelry and household items.
This ancient monument has attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists and archaeologists from all over the world. Everyone wanted to take a closer look at the unique artifacts. Scientists have found that on the site of Malta 21-23 thousand years ago there was a tundra through which herds of mammoths, rhinoceroses and bison roamed. Their meat served as food for primitive people, and dwellings were built from skins and bones.
In 1958, Mikhail Gerasimov, who was the first to study Malta culture, was replaced by his student, professor and archaeologist German Medvedev. He also unearthed many amazing items. Among them, for example, are small figurines of women. Their lips were clearly cut out, their nostrils were profiled, and their miniature chins stood out. There were 30 such figures, named Venus. Another find is an ancient bead made from the tiger's eye mineral. What is noteworthy about it is that until now this mineral was found only in India and Southern Afghanistan.
In Malta, they discovered the only burial of a child in the region with rich decoration: beads and pendants made of mammoth tusk, fragments of an image of a flying bird, flint products and a bracelet.
They burned bonfires and sang with a guitar
Archaeological research also aroused genuine interest among local residents. The children often visited expedition members and watched how they worked.
Previously, there was even a sign “Site of an ancient man.” Outsiders were prohibited from entering there. But in my youth we often ran there. In the 80s, archaeologists set up a tent city and worked here for the entire season, three to four months. Mostly students and young people came from Irkutsk, they lit fires and played the guitar. And we joined them,” recalls Dinara Salikhovna, a resident of Malta.
From the first grade, young “archaeologists” trodden a path here. They were interested in the whole process of work: how the first layer of earth is removed, working with scrapers and brushes, removing products, taking measurements and photographing artifacts.
It's impossible to describe. Need to see. I have never seen such meticulous work; every millimeter of the earth is examined. Archaeologists are sensitive to every discovered exhibit. Handle them very carefully so as not to cause damage.
True, there is one significant drawback to this Malta attraction. Since the entire village is essentially an archaeological heritage zone, any construction or excavation work is prohibited here. And this is a very big problem for residents. In order to obtain permission to build any object, even a small barn or bathhouse, they need to go through many authorities. Those who simply want to take land for a vegetable garden are subject to the same procedure. Some of the Maltese tried to prevent this “disgrace” and erected buildings without permission. However, the supervisory authorities, having learned about the violation, immediately came and punished the culprit with a ruble.
Mammoth and dentist
In the early 2000s, due to lack of funding, excavations stopped, and only two or three years ago they continued again. In 2014, archaeologists from Irkutsk State University discovered the remains of a baby mammoth on the river bank. First, they came across a tooth of an animal that was hiding just under the turf, then, digging deeper, they found the rest of the remains: fragments of the skull, leg bones, ribs. All of them were located in an ancient frost crack, on an area of about one and a half meters. The age of the deposits was approximately 25 thousand years.
According to the assumptions of Dmitry Lokhov, a research engineer at the Department of Archaeology, Ethnology and History of the Ancient World, it is possible that the baby mammoth became the prey of an ancient man. He was separated from the herd and driven into a trap. This can be judged by the appearance and location of the remains. Archaeologists found chopped leg bones and a skull. The teeth lay separately. The ribs were also chopped and piled together.
In 2015, research work in Malta began later, at the beginning of September.
Excavations were carried out right along the fences, along the entire length of Proizvodstvenny Lane. They dug about three meters deep, and on top everything was under film,” says Dinara. - This time we accommodated the expedition members in the House of Culture, heated the bathhouse, and gave them tea. Work continued until mid-November. When it was cold they lit the stove. While the excavations were going on, a temporary bypass road was built for residents. After the work was completed, the alley was restored to its original appearance. We don’t know what archaeologists discovered, we only know that there were many elements of animal bones.
On Beregovaya Street, along which excavations have been carried out for many years, none of the former residents remain. The elderly died, the young left. The new residents only know that this is the site of an ancient man’s site. True, sometimes someone finds interesting fragments. So, last year, after a heavy rain, Natalya Burlakova, going down to the shore, accidentally
stumbled upon an object of an unusual shape. At first she thought it was a stone, but after looking closely, she decided that it looked more like a tooth. Experts confirmed her guesses. She donated her find to the school museum. It is noteworthy that she found the tooth not on the left bank, where the parking lot is located, but on the right. How he got there remains a mystery. At least, Galina Kolomiets jokingly tells the children at school that the mammoth went to the dentist.
Another exhibit of the school local history museum is a huge vertebra. Fishermen caught him in the river. For a long time they didn’t know where to put it, and then they decided to take it to the museum. The jawbone of an unknown animal, a bone from the thigh of a woolly rhinoceros and a copy of Venus, which was donated to the museum by professor from Germany Nana Nauwald, are also kept here.
Cucumbers are pickled using spring water
The site of an ancient man is not the only attraction of Malta. Who doesn’t know the bottled mineral water of the same name? It is being implemented throughout the Irkutsk region and beyond. The source is privately owned. One entrepreneur took a plot of land, drilled a well on it and started a profitable business. Residents of Malta and all unauthorized persons are prohibited from entering there, but they don’t need it. They have their own source. Anyone can come and draw some spring water for themselves. It tastes slightly salted. As the Maltinians assure, it contains many useful substances. It is usually treated for the gastrointestinal tract. To do this, you need to drink 100 grams of water in the morning and evening. Housewives use this water to make good pickles. Lightly salted cucumbers are especially successful. There is a chapel next to the source.
The Maltinsky sanatorium, another pride of the village, has long since sunk into oblivion. In his golden years, people came here on vacation from the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Buryatia, Chita Region, and Yakutia. The sanatorium served up to 1000 people per season. People were attracted by the local beauty and healing mud that was extracted from the Popovsky Lakes. They helped with diseases of the joints and musculoskeletal system. There is mud even today, only the Usolsky hospitals use it.
Now all that remains of the former holiday home is a sign at the entrance to the village and two buildings - an office and a dining room. Other buildings either burned down or were dismantled for needs. A few years ago, these two buildings also turned into ordinary residential buildings. The district administration plans to create an open-air museum on the territory of the former holiday home. True, no one knows when the desired will come true.
Selfie on a mammoth
The only attraction that has appeared here recently is a family of mammoths. The opening of the monument was timed to coincide with the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Usolsky district. First, a mother and a baby mammoth appeared on the open area in front of Malta, and later the father joined them. The sculptural composition was made by the famous master from Telma, Ivan Zuev.
I immediately decided that it would be a little mammoth pulling its mother out of the icy water. On the one hand, this is salvation, on the other, awakening. The baby mammoth symbolizes our young generation, which is trying to extract information about the past from the depths of centuries. What we have already forgotten. I wish people would remember this. Many simply do not know what unique treasures are stored in the depths of this village,” noted Ivan Zuev.
The technology for making the sculpture is identical to that used to create the statue “The Motherland Calls” in Volgograd. In addition, a special bronzing technique was used. This creation is guaranteed for 50 years. As soon as a mammoth family settles in the countryside, cars drive towards it in an endless stream. People take photos and selfies against the backdrop of ancient animals, and someone tries to climb onto the back of a baby mammoth.
Tourists are attracted by the cellar
Malta children are still trying to find unique artifacts today. They take all their finds to the local history museum. Every year there is a competition for the most interesting ancient exhibit. Schoolchildren bring antique utensils and household items. However, today even such devices as a home landline telephone, radio, and tape recorder have historical value for them. The Angarsk geological expedition, based in Malta, donated a set of stones to the museum, and a local watchmaker brought many interesting watch mechanisms. Among his gifts is a ship's clock that keeps time with the precision of the Kremlin clock.
The pride of the school is the school theater “Voice”, which next year will celebrate its 30th anniversary. The theater's repertoire is impressive. Among the productions: “Juno and Avos”, “The Master and Margarita”, “12 Chairs” and much more. The actors are both children and the entire teaching staff. Regional theater festivals and master classes are also held here.
In general, according to residents, they have a good, calm village. Every summer Malta is visited by groups of tourists. Everyone is interested in seeing the place where mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses lived many thousands of years ago. They are especially attracted to the house in whose cellar the first artifacts were dug up. True, the tenants there have long since changed and strangers are not allowed onto their property. And there’s nothing to see there anymore - everything is overgrown with grass and beds. The regional authorities have long had an idea to organize a tourist route around Malta’s archaeological heritage sites. All that remains is to bring this idea to life.
Photo by Sergei Ignatenko
Malta attracted special attention two years ago when a family of mammoths appeared at the entrance to an ancient village. Surprisingly, many residents of the Angara region did not even suspect that one of the largest sites of the Paleolithic era was located next to them. It all started with the fact that back in 1929, the peasant Savelyev decided to deepen the cellar at his home. During excavations, he discovered a huge old bone, which, however, did not impress him. He threw it over the fence, and the local boys immediately found a use for it, adapting it as a sleigh. However, the head of the village reading room took a closer look at the curiosity and reported it to Irkutsk. The famous archaeologist Mikhail Gerasimov immediately went to Malta and discovered an ancient site. This news stunned the entire scientific world. Such unique artifacts as miniature female figurines, Venuses, a child’s burial with rich grave goods, and a bead made from a mineral called “tiger’s eye” were recovered from the bowels of the Malta soil.
The church collapsed in silence
The beautiful large village of Malta is divided into two parts - the right and left banks of the Belaya River. The right side is more modern. It was formed after the railroad was built. All socially significant objects are located here: the local administration, a school, the House of Culture, the Maltinskoye mineral water production enterprise and the remains of a sanatorium that once thundered throughout the region.
But the left side is a real historical treasury. Along the main street - Lenin - stretches the former Moscow Highway, along which convicts and military personnel moved several centuries ago. During the journey, they made a short stop in Malta: they rested and changed horses. The Maltinians recreated this episode from the history of the village on one of the village holidays. Dressed in rags and tatters, they depicted how convicts moved along the Moscow highway.
On the corner of the street there still stands a two-story old house in which there was a hotel near the tract. According to residents, Anton Chekhov once stayed there. Then, many years later, the building was equipped as a maternity hospital.
It is known that not all convicts survived the long journey. Often martyrs found their final refuge here. They were buried without a funeral service, and it was for this reason that the residents decided to build a church in the village. They sent a petition to Emperor Alexander I and, without waiting for an answer, began collecting money.
Initially, it was decided to build a two-aisle temple, but over time the plans changed, and as a result, a large three-aisle temple was erected. The main chapel is in the name of the Ascension of the Lord, the second is in the name of the Kazan Mother of God, and the third is in the name of St. Innocent. The temple was built conscientiously. Large antique bricks made from local clay were used for its construction. In order for them to hold tighter, a huge amount of eggs was added to the solution. Residents themselves carried them from their yards. Everyone wanted to contribute to a good cause.
In 1810, two smaller chapels were consecrated, and the turn of the main one came only 23 years later, as there were difficulties with money. A parochial school was also opened near the temple. 10 people were the first to graduate. Moreover, according to the recollections of old-timers, there were more boys than girls at that time. The temple served in its original form until the revolution.
During the Civil War of 1918, it was used for zeroing artillery pieces by both the Red and White. The church was shelled from all sides. In February 2020, when Malta was under martial law, the Reds fired back from the Kappelites from the bell tower.
In 1933 the temple was closed. Part of the premises was fenced off and equipped for storage, and the church territory was given over to sports grounds and buildings. For some time, there was a brick factory office on the second floor of the temple, then it was given over to a club. Workers of Malta culture showed films and organized dances. Here the population gathered for gatherings. During the time when the temple was not used for its intended purpose, it was gradually dismantled for needs. Since the brick was of very good quality, in the 30s and 40s the military took it to the barracks.
The last one to temporarily find refuge in the church was a general store. True, he did not work for long, and after the building was empty, it began to collapse. During the 2009 earthquake, most of the walls of the temple crumbled, and two years later only ruins remained.
It was very calm and quiet that day. At about 17.30 they heard a terrible crash and the temple collapsed. On my own. Apparently, his time has come. No one went there or looked there anymore,” says Galina Kolomiets, curator of the school’s local history museum. - It's a pity, of course, the church. Architectural monument. Maybe someday a new temple will be built in its place. After all, this place is prayed for, holy.
Venuses, beads and ancient burials
Malta is also home to the world-famous site of ancient man. The story of how a local resident dug up a mammoth bone has long turned into a legend that the older generation tells to the younger ones. For several decades, expeditions visited here every season. From the ground, archaeologists recovered the bones of a mammoth, woolly rhinoceros, deer antlers, tools of primitive people, jewelry and household items.
This ancient monument has attracted hundreds of thousands of tourists and archaeologists from all over the world. Everyone wanted to take a closer look at the unique artifacts. Scientists have found that on the site of Malta 21-23 thousand years ago there was a tundra through which herds of mammoths, rhinoceroses and bison roamed. Their meat served as food for primitive people, and dwellings were built from skins and bones.
In 1958, Mikhail Gerasimov, who was the first to study Malta culture, was replaced by his student, professor and archaeologist German Medvedev. He also unearthed many amazing items. Among them, for example, are small figurines of women. Their lips were clearly cut out, their nostrils were profiled, and their miniature chins stood out. There were 30 such figures, named Venus. Another find is an ancient bead made from the tiger's eye mineral. What is noteworthy about it is that until now this mineral was found only in India and Southern Afghanistan.
In Malta, they discovered the only burial of a child in the region with rich decoration: beads and pendants made of mammoth tusk, fragments of an image of a flying bird, flint products and a bracelet.
They burned bonfires and sang with a guitar
Archaeological research also aroused genuine interest among local residents. The children often visited expedition members and watched how they worked.
Previously, there was even a sign “Site of an ancient man.” Outsiders were prohibited from entering there. But in my youth we often ran there. In the 80s, archaeologists set up a tent city and worked here for the entire season, three to four months. Mostly students and young people came from Irkutsk, they lit fires and played the guitar. And we joined them,” recalls Dinara Salikhovna, a resident of Malta.
From the first grade, young “archaeologists” trodden a path here. They were interested in the whole process of work: how the first layer of earth is removed, working with scrapers and brushes, removing products, taking measurements and photographing artifacts.
It's impossible to describe. Need to see. I have never seen such meticulous work; every millimeter of the earth is examined. Archaeologists are sensitive to every discovered exhibit. Handle them very carefully so as not to cause damage.
True, there is one significant drawback to this Malta attraction. Since the entire village is essentially an archaeological heritage zone, any construction or excavation work is prohibited here. And this is a very big problem for residents. In order to obtain permission to build any object, even a small barn or bathhouse, they need to go through many authorities. Those who simply want to take land for a vegetable garden are subject to the same procedure. Some of the Maltese tried to prevent this “disgrace” and erected buildings without permission. However, the supervisory authorities, having learned about the violation, immediately came and punished the culprit with a ruble.
Mammoth and dentist
In the early 2000s, due to lack of funding, excavations stopped, and only two or three years ago they continued again. In 2014, archaeologists from Irkutsk State University discovered the remains of a baby mammoth on the river bank. First, they came across a tooth of an animal that was hiding just under the turf, then, digging deeper, they found the rest of the remains: fragments of the skull, leg bones, ribs. All of them were located in an ancient frost crack, on an area of about one and a half meters. The age of the deposits was approximately 25 thousand years.
According to the assumptions of Dmitry Lokhov, a research engineer at the Department of Archaeology, Ethnology and History of the Ancient World, it is possible that the baby mammoth became the prey of an ancient man. He was separated from the herd and driven into a trap. This can be judged by the appearance and location of the remains. Archaeologists found chopped leg bones and a skull. The teeth lay separately. The ribs were also chopped and piled together.
In 2015, research work in Malta began later, at the beginning of September.
Excavations were carried out right along the fences, along the entire length of Proizvodstvenny Lane. They dug about three meters deep, and on top everything was under film,” says Dinara. - This time we accommodated the expedition members in the House of Culture, heated the bathhouse, and gave them tea. Work continued until mid-November. When it was cold they lit the stove. While the excavations were going on, a temporary bypass road was built for residents. After the work was completed, the alley was restored to its original appearance. We don’t know what archaeologists discovered, we only know that there were many elements of animal bones.
On Beregovaya Street, along which excavations have been carried out for many years, none of the former residents remain. The elderly died, the young left. The new residents only know that this is the site of an ancient man’s site. True, sometimes someone finds interesting fragments. So, last year, after a heavy rain, Natalya Burlakova, going down to the shore, accidentally
I stumbled upon an object of an unusual shape. At first she thought it was a stone, but after looking closely, she decided that it looked more like a tooth. Experts confirmed her guesses. She donated her find to the school museum. It is noteworthy that she found the tooth not on the left bank, where the parking lot is located, but on the right. How he got there remains a mystery. At least, Galina Kolomiets jokingly tells the children at school that the mammoth went to the dentist.
Another exhibit of the school local history museum is a huge vertebra. Fishermen caught him in the river. For a long time they didn’t know where to put it, and then they decided to take it to the museum. The jawbone of an unknown animal, a bone from the thigh of a woolly rhinoceros and a copy of Venus, which was donated to the museum by professor from Germany Nana Nauwald, are also kept here.
Cucumbers are pickled using spring water
The site of an ancient man is not the only attraction of Malta. Who doesn’t know the bottled mineral water of the same name? It is being implemented throughout the Irkutsk region and beyond. The source is privately owned. One entrepreneur took a plot of land, drilled a well on it and started a profitable business. Residents of Malta and all unauthorized persons are prohibited from entering there, but they don’t need it. They have their own source. Anyone can come and draw some spring water for themselves. It tastes slightly salted. As the Maltinians assure, it contains many useful substances. It is usually treated for the gastrointestinal tract. To do this, you need to drink 100 grams of water in the morning and evening. Housewives use this water to make good pickles. Lightly salted cucumbers are especially successful. There is a chapel next to the source.
The Maltinsky sanatorium, another pride of the village, has long since sunk into oblivion. In his golden years, people came here on vacation from the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Buryatia, Chita Region, and Yakutia. The sanatorium served up to 1000 people per season. People were attracted by the local beauty and healing mud that was extracted from the Popovsky Lakes. They helped with diseases of the joints and musculoskeletal system. There is mud even today, only the Usolsky hospitals use it.
Now all that remains of the former holiday home is a sign at the entrance to the village and two buildings - an office and a dining room. Other buildings either burned down or were dismantled for needs. A few years ago, these two buildings also turned into ordinary residential buildings. The district administration plans to create an open-air museum on the territory of the former holiday home. True, no one knows when the desired will come true.
Selfie on a mammoth
The only attraction that has appeared here recently is a family of mammoths. The opening of the monument was timed to coincide with the celebration of the 90th anniversary of the Usolsky district. First, a mother and a baby mammoth appeared on the open area in front of Malta, and later the father joined them. The sculptural composition was made by the famous master from Telma, Ivan Zuev.
I immediately decided that it would be a little mammoth pulling its mother out of the icy water. On the one hand, this is salvation, on the other, awakening. The baby mammoth symbolizes our young generation, which is trying to extract information about the past from the depths of centuries. What we have already forgotten. I wish people would remember this. Many simply do not know what unique treasures are stored in the depths of this village,” noted Ivan Zuev.
The technology for making the sculpture is identical to that used to create the statue “The Motherland Calls” in Volgograd. In addition, a special bronzing technique was used. This creation is guaranteed for 50 years. As soon as a mammoth family settles in the countryside, cars drive towards it in an endless stream. People take photos and selfies against the backdrop of ancient animals, and someone tries to climb onto the back of a baby mammoth.
Tourists are attracted by the cellar
Malta children are still trying to find unique artifacts today. They take all their finds to the local history museum. Every year there is a competition for the most interesting ancient exhibit. Schoolchildren bring antique utensils and household items. However, today even such devices as a home landline telephone, radio, and tape recorder have historical value for them. The Angarsk geological expedition, based in Malta, donated a set of stones to the museum, and a local watchmaker brought many interesting watch mechanisms. Among his gifts is a ship's clock that keeps time with the precision of the Kremlin clock.
The pride of the school is the school theater “Voice”, which next year will celebrate its 30th anniversary. The theater's repertoire is impressive. Among the productions: “Juno and Avos”, “The Master and Margarita”, “12 Chairs” and much more. The actors are both children and the entire teaching staff. Regional theater festivals and master classes are also held here.
In general, according to residents, they have a good, calm village. Every summer Malta is visited by groups of tourists. Everyone is interested in seeing the place where mammoths and woolly rhinoceroses lived many thousands of years ago. They are especially attracted to the house in whose cellar the first artifacts were dug up. True, the tenants there have long since changed and strangers are not allowed onto their property. And there’s nothing to see there anymore - everything is overgrown with grass and beds. The regional authorities have long had an idea to organize a tourist route around Malta’s archaeological heritage sites. All that remains is to bring this idea to life.
Sergey Kez
This station has world fame, which few people in Russia know about. Passengers of the Trans-Siberian Railway crossing Russia can rightfully say that they have passed through Malta. Geography connoisseurs should not get excited: on the map there was a place not only for the island state of Malta, but also for a station with the same
title. Moreover, the residents of Siberian Malta are no less proud of their history than they are of the Mediterranean.
Malta means “bird cherry place” in Buryat. With the current head of the station, Andrei Drachuk, no matter how hard we tried, we could not find even a hint of the remains of bird cherry thickets. Either the first builders of the great Siberian road completely eliminated this bush with black tart berries, or it disappeared for unknown reasons even before their arrival. The head of the local municipality, Sergei Miller, also a railway worker in the recent past, could not shed any light on the botanical incident. True, through joint efforts they successfully covered that part of the story that concerned the most notable historical events of the 333-year-old village.
Malta originates from a monastic village that belonged to the Ascension Monastery in Irkutsk. The founding date is considered to be 1675. The village, apparently, was destined to be first a postal station and then a railway station. The Senate decree on the construction of a high road from Moscow to Irkutsk was signed in 1731, and almost three decades later the road reached Malta. The landmark, according to historians, was the old shackled path along which convicts and settlers dragged themselves. Neither Radishchev, nor Chernyshevsky, nor the Decembrists, nor the exiled Poles escaped Malta. History repeated itself in the 20th century, when a camp for Japanese prisoners of war appeared in the village.
The life of Malta changed dramatically after the arrival of the railway: it was divided, as it were, into two parts - the railway and the purely rural. Over time, the railway began to dominate. A school, a holiday home, and shops appeared here. In short, the center of business and cultural life has shifted closer to the railway.
But the real glory of Malta came from excavations, when it was revealed that almost its entire territory is a unique monument of the Paleolithic era. Moreover, it all started, according to old-timers, as often happens, anecdotally. In 1929, a local peasant Savelyev was deepening his cellar and during this simple task he hardly pulled a giant bone out of the ground. Savelyev did not attach much importance to the curiosity, and a few days later Maltese children began to use the find as a sled. The head of the village reading room turned out to be a more knowledgeable person; he reported the strange-sized bone to the Irkutsk Museum of Local Lore. In Malta, without delay, the world-famous anthropologist, archaeologist, historian and sculptor Mikhail Gerasimov appeared.
Continuing to deepen the Savelyevsky cellar, the archaeologist, to unspeakable delight, discovered mammoth bones, artistic items made from its tusks and the remains of other long-vanished animals. This is how the oldest human settlement was found in Siberia.
And then discoveries rained down like from a cornucopia. Over several decades, Gerasimov continued his archaeological research until 1959, and not only in the cellar, he found many bone human figurines. They were all female. According to the scientist, this was explained by the fact that the ancient Maltese had a matriarchy. According to him, more than two tens of thousands of years ago, on the site of Malta there was a tundra along which herds of mammoths, rhinoceroses and bison slowly moved. They served as the main object of extraction. The ancient Maltese ate animal meat, and built a tent from bones, using deer antlers woven together as a roof. Skins were thrown over this frame of bones, which were pressed down by massive mammoth skulls and tusks. (It is curious that in Mediterranean Malta, the discovery, for example, of the Hypogeum was accompanied by similar events: the owner of the land accidentally discovered a hole leading to underground caves. site note)
Archaeologists continue excavations to this day with varying degrees of intensity.
Here, wherever you poke a shovel, with luck you can get into a world sensation, because the entire territory of Malta, according to Mikhail Gerasimov’s student, Irkutsk scientist, Professor German Medvedev, has long been declared a continuous zone of archaeological heritage. With all the ensuing restrictions for local residents: getting a plot of land for construction or starting one, Sergei Miller admitted, is a big problem. The matter will move forward only when scientists issue a permit.
But the head of the local government himself dreams of a time when Malta’s world fame will begin to bring at least a penny into the skinny municipal budget.
“It would be entirely possible to organize a paid excursion to the ancient human sites already discovered in the region. We are late, but we are even creating a museum for this purpose, which will be located in the building of a former parochial school, also, by the way, a local old-timer - this house is almost years old. And archaeologists have long been notified: dig, but some of the artifacts found are for us. Otherwise, there is practically not a single good exhibit - everything is in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In a word, a shoemaker without boots, says Sergei Miller.
And finally, we go to the famous Maltese springs. A mug of cold salt water goes around in a circle. Sergei Miller promises to give me a book about the history of Malta, which was written by retired teachers Anatoly Grechenko and his wife Antonina, along with other family members.
And I’m trying to find a piece of the landscape where there is not a single sign of modernity, so that I can imagine how herds of mammoths wandered here thousands of years ago. It seems that I have found it, and now giant animals will appear. But a locomotive passing nearby sounded its whistle, and the obsession disappeared.
Brief overview of archival materialsINTRODUCTION
Over the past five years, I have heard every now and then: is the history of libraries really necessary? Well, they were, they are alive now, but are they worth such close attention to their past? I am sure that the history of libraries is on the same level as the history of public education. After all, they, along with schools, played a huge role in the life of our people. They help to store and transmit from generation to generation the knowledge accumulated by humanity. Studying the history of libraries operating in the city is an opportunity not only to determine the opening date and addresses, but also to try to name those who opened these libraries.
The history of libraries can be studied in two ways. First: memories of the oldest library workers and their readers. The second is the study of documents that are stored in the funds of our archives: the State Archive of the Ulyanovsk Region and the Archive of Contemporary History. In addition to traditional statistical reports on the work of libraries for each year of operation from the date of foundation, text reports, certificates on the work of libraries and other documents are also stored in the funds of the cultural department and the cultural department of the city council. What a joy when, through a pile of dusty, dry reports, you come across a living word about a library or a reading hut - evidence that not just a performer, but also a real ascetic worked in this small cultural institution.
The scope of my research is limited to the Soviet period and only to the city (the history of the largest libraries - regional scientific and youth libraries - is dealt with by the scientific secretary of the Palace of Books V.M. Patutkina).
HUT - READING ROOM
Let's imagine our city in the early twenties. It is generally accepted that at this time the city had two or three libraries. This is wrong. According to the list of libraries as of December 1, 1921, there were 34 libraries in the city. The list includes military and departmental libraries: for example, at the Council of National Economy, the Gubernia Land Department, the health department, the concentration camp, the correctional home, and so on. The same list includes the familiar provincial book depository, the central library, two regional libraries, and so on. In addition to the registered libraries, it is known that at various institutions and organizations of the city there were ... 47 issuing points.
The ruler of thoughts in those years was our fellow countryman - V.I. Lenin. He and his wife N.K. Krupskaya thought through and implemented the idea of bringing the book as close as possible to the reader. For example, V.I. Lenin believed that the number of libraries is an indicator of the culture of any country. In his opinion, the library should be located within a 20-minute walk from the reader’s place of residence. During the most difficult years of devastation and famine for the country, reading huts began to appear in the country.
About a hundred reading huts were registered in the Ulyanovsk region, six of them were located in the city. Some of them became prototypes of modern libraries, clubs and even kindergartens.
Ulyanovsk reading huts appeared as “centers of political education and conductors of all cultural events.” The reading hut was supposed to help “unite the poor and farm laborers with the middle peasants”.
At each reading hut there were political circles, health centers (to eliminate illiteracy), and drama clubs (in the largest - Kulikovskaya - reading hut they staged plays that were popular among the population.
The reading huts were supposed to become centers for organizing conscription into the army; the huts organized evenings of remembrance of former military personnel and ceremonial farewells for conscripts. The duty of the hut is to design the wall newspaper, organize loud readings and various lectures. Not all, but many of the reading huts had small collections of books. In some cases, the izbach agreed to issue books at certain hours (he brought books from the Book Palace). Each reading hut subscribed to newspapers and magazines. In the early 30s, reading huts resembled today's teenage clubs. “Instances have become more frequent when teenagers and low-income children of deprived people, breaking off relations with their parents, go to the streets, where they beg, commit crimes, thereby joining the ranks of street children,” Terekhina and Agapova write in Gorono, “we ask for specific instructions on how to deal with children dispossessed people living in poverty on the streets." Much attention was paid to working with children and women. Children's playgrounds were organized at large reading huts, which became the prototypes of today's kindergartens. One of the documents clarifies that "the reading hut arose as a means of cultural education among unorganized households. housewives." The same document proposed "in view of summer time, to transfer work (reading rooms) to nature and, if possible, organize excursions (for housewives), for example, to a nursery named after. Ilyich, to a museum or to a house for the protection of motherhood and childhood. The plans for the work of the reading hut include organizing outdoor readings of the magazines “Rabotnitsa”, “Delegate” and “Peasant Woman”. On the outskirts of the city, where there are no reading rooms yet, it was proposed to organize travel and book distribution points. “Some reading huts were organized not from above, but ... from below, spontaneously, by the population themselves. For example, in November 1925, the Butyrskaya reading hut was opened.
From the documents of 1928, one can see the concern of the authorities that “the population of Tuti and the Northern Pasture with the adjacent areas of Brick Sheds and Boltavsky Pits are not at all served by political education.”(form 521, inventory 1, file 521, p. 191). “The house on Sbornaya 74\4 is quite suitable as a reading hut for servicing the Northern Pasture,” reports the author of one of the reports. He recommends purchasing the Doktorov brothers' house for this purpose. It is possible that as a result of the authorities’ concern, huts - reading rooms - appeared in Kulikovka and Podgorye. Before this, the population of these areas of the city was served by booksellers from the Palace of Books and school employees. However, the authors of the documents admit that this work was carried out “haphazardly and without any regulation.” One of the reasons is called “non-payment of labor.” Izbachi, like school employees, received salaries. GORONO supplies the reading huts with kerosene, firewood and newspapers. The Department of Public Education oversaw the work of the reading rooms until 1954. Questions about reading huts were discussed at the “Association of Librarians” operating in the city. For example, at a meeting of the Gubpolitprosvet (1925), the “Union...” raised the issue of supplying reading rooms with reading and book forms, as well as “Notebooks for issuing books.” At each reading hut there were Soviets from among activists. Before starting work, the librarian had to undergo a month-long “test” (training and practice) at the Central Library. The archives contain many interesting facts about many reading huts in the city and region. Reading huts were financed from the county budget. Where there is no money, it was supported by...the population. “The reading huts seemed to come to life,” they write in the documents of Gubpolitprosvet dated March 10, 1924, “visits have grown several times, the need for a good peasant book has increased... The magazine “Atheist” is read to its core. It is necessary to order posters with the image of V.I. Lenin, books with his biography. We need books by Stasov “What peasants need to know about Soviet power, about the land and about their farms”... We need the magazine “New Village”.
The Ulyanovsk archives contain many interesting facts about the Nizhne-Chasovenskaya, Kanavskaya and Royal reading huts in the Zavolzhsky district. In the center of Ulyanovsk there were Butyrskaya, Kulikovskaya and Podgornaya reading huts. In this publication I will focus on one of them - Butyrskaya.
BUTYRSKAYA
Old-timers know that Butyrki is the area of the old cemetery, Robespierre and Nizhne-Polevoy streets. In the twenties and thirties, the Butyrki district was considered an area of poor handicraftsmen and artisans. Judging by the sources, it was from them that the initiative to open the hut-reading room came. It was opened twice. For the first time - in November 1925. The reading hut was located in the two-story Pishtrest building, which before the revolution housed the office of the Lipatov mill.
The ideal reading hut includes a stage. It was built. A literacy center was opened in one of the rooms, and another was occupied by a watchman. The first furniture of the reading room: tables, benches, water tank.
No information has yet been found about the first Butyrki hut. Most likely, he failed to prove himself, perhaps he simply did not know where to start working. Perhaps he languished in this state for two years, otherwise why in November 1927 the Butyrskaya reading room opened again. Izbach Presnyakov informs about this. In statements to Gorono, he writes that the reading room opened literally from scratch: when he arrived, there was no table, no bench, no water tank in the room. Presnyakov asks for one hundred rubles to be allocated to him to buy furniture. In January 28, he orders firewood, since there are three stoves in the room and before that he bought firewood with his own money. The inspectors are unanimous in their assessment of his performance: “The work... can be felt.”
Under Presnyakov, a drama club and a health center began operating in the reading hut.
The methodologist of the Palace of Books, K. Okolova, who inspects the work of the reading hut, calls the Butyrskaya reading hut “a valuable mobile point.” In the audit report, she reports that “students and teenagers are reading more, but there is no guidance on how readers should read.”. K. Okolova notes that the reading hut is one common room where checkers are played and rehearsals take place. Perhaps there was some kind of room for issuing books? It is known that Presnyakov regularly announced the opening hours of the transport. Most likely, the books were brought from the Book Palace. Izbach compiled annotated lists of literature and designed book exhibitions.
Under Presnyakov, the reading hut was renovated, and a children's playground for 62 people was built. On Red Army Day, he organized an excursion to Polivno. This event resolved the issue of linking the population with the army. By the date of the capture of the city (September 12), a report was made. After the speaker there was a speaker on loans. The event brightened up the cinema. The work of the Butyrka izbach was used as an example. And, as often happens, he was noticed there, “at the top,” and already in October 1928, Presnyakov was transferred to another area of work: to the Karsun volost Komsomol committee.
The fate of the Butyrskaya reading room confirms the well-known “Personnel decides everything.” Presnyakov’s place was taken by Bayushev, who, as written in the report of the political education inspector for the city of Vasyanin, “has never worked in political education work and is of little interest. His work is bad.” Bayushev is the complete opposite of Presnyakov. He is rude and tactless.
The most affectionate thing about visitors: “hooligans.” If he was not in the mood, he could call the visitor a “drunk face.” Butyrka activists fought against the rude izbach: each of his “mistakes” was reported to the political education department. For example, once Bayushev disrupted the planned report “On the Lena execution.” The speaker has arrived, and circus performers are performing in the reading hut. Izbach justified himself with the banal: “I thought you wouldn’t come.”
Activists continued to brand the izbach in the wall newspaper. But this did not help: Bayushev did not want to re-educate and behaved defiantly. At one of the meetings, inspector Vasyanin reports that Butyrok activists refuse to work with Bayushev.
There are not so many huts in the city. Izbach of the Kanavskaya reading room Ivan Veselkin has long been asking to be transferred to the city. We have to make concessions. Veselkin is transferred to the Butyrskaya hut-reading room, Bayushev is “exiled” to Kanavskaya.
Let's look through one of the plans for the Butyrskaya hut-reading room. The main task is “to widely familiarize the population with the tasks of the party.” No less important is to “concentrate the population’s attention on strengthening the country’s defense capability.” In the section on circle work, it is increasingly noted: “Organize...”, “Resume...”
The OSOAVIAKHIM and MOPR circles were obligatory for all circles at huts - reading rooms. Under Presnyakov they existed, but under Bayushev they fell apart. The wall newspaper stopped publishing, activists did not gather.
At the reading hut, the health center is open again. Izbach plans to create a wall-kicks circle, a cell to combat alcohol, an “Atheist” circle, Komsomol and Pioneer circles. It is planned to “stage a movie three times”, prepare a performance twice with the help of the drama club, and organize checkers games. Interesting point: “Hold a show trial.”
There is a children's playground at the Butyrskaya reading hut - this is the prototype of a modern kindergarten. It is headed by E.F. Greshnyakova. There is her statement with a request to “release the manufacture in order to sew linen for the children of poor parents.”
Unfortunately, Ivan Yakovlevich Veselkin did not show himself either. According to one version, he quit of his own free will. According to another, it was filmed by the harsh Butyrka Komsomol members. They did not forgive him for his “negligent attitude towards work, drinking and rudeness...”. Since February 1929, the Butyrskaya hut-reading room has been headed by A. Voronin. His work was marked by the rise of mass work. An assessment of his work can be read in the report of political education inspector Sharagin, who visited the reading hut. He writes that “in the area of the old and new Butyrki there are no cultural and educational institutions, except for the reading hut. ... Geographically, it is located far from the outskirts. The Butyrka population is mainly poor: handicraftsmen, seasonal and permanent workers, dray and passenger cab drivers. The capacity of the hut -reading room - 80-100 people."
The inspector notes that “the work is getting better: there are already 27 people in the OSOAVIAKHIM cell, 17 in the drama club, 22 attending the sanitary club - ROKK. Amateur artists sometimes stage paid performances for the benefit of the reading room.
There is a political circle among Komsomol members.. In the Butyrskaya hut-reading room all political and economic campaigns, all revolutionary holidays are reflected in a timely manner."
Sharagin gives several figures: there are seven reports and lectures every month; the hut-reading room has about 200 political and fiction books. Books are issued twice a week. 157 people were recruited (in the sense of being recorded). Every month 670 books pass through the hands of readers. There are booksellers at the reading hut.
Sharagin is dissatisfied with the “weak management of the hut-reading room.” There is not enough separate room: “68 sq. m. is not enough.” He cites the lack of work with parents as a disadvantage of his job. The “Group of the Poor” has not been organized and there is no work being done among women. The manager of the reading hut does not participate in the work of the literacy center.
Sharagin suggests that the hut “keep an accurate record of the throughput of visitors.” At the same time, he recommends “taking a course towards weeding out alien elements visiting the reading hut.”
In June, Voronin asks for a vacation: he was lucky enough to receive a ticket to a rest home. And in September he wrote an application to “travel to Samara to enter the pedagogical institute from September 1 to September 6, 1929.” In the same folder is a statement from M. Trifonova. She asks to be appointed head of the hut-reading room on Butyrki.
FIRST LIBRARY
In 1938, the Butyrskaya Izba Reading Room turned into Library No. 1. Until recently, employees of City Library No. 1 considered the date of its opening to be 1941, citing the fact that an inventory book had been kept since that year. The search for a solution from the City Executive Committee “brought” me to 1938. Firstly, because in one of the certificates about the work of city libraries for 1950, the director of the Palace of Books, Elizaveta Perukhina, reports that ... “the first library has existed since 1938.” Plunging into pre-war documents, I discovered the “Cost Estimate for 1 City Library for 1938.” However, where is the decision of the City Council?
“Proletarian Way” dated May 28, 1937 publishes a note by N. Sokolova “The Forgotten Outskirts”. She writes that the city “pays little attention to the outskirts. Take, for example, the old and new Butyrkas. There is no club here, not even a small reading room.” As we know, there was a reading room in this area, but perhaps in the thirties it worked so quietly that N. Sokolova did not even notice it. One way or another, the authorities read the note and drew their conclusions. From the minutes of the section of public education and the elimination of illiteracy dated January 28, 1938, its leader Peter Kradenov spoke “... about the need to open a library under the mountain, where a secondary school is also needed, since in the future the population there will increase.” At the meeting, it was decided to provide for the opening of one library on the outskirts of the city in the budget for 1939. Today we know that before the war only one library was opened, the first one opened on the premises of the former Butyrskaya hut-reading room. There is a document according to which the librarian E. Gladilina was hired at the Butyrki hut-reading room, and left the city library No. 1. (It is not clear why the library on Butyrki was assigned number 1, because by that time the Ulyanovsk Gorono was already under the jurisdiction of the city Tatar library, which dates back to December 1918).
It is possible that many modern libraries “grew” from reading huts. Some of them existed until the mid-50s. But this is in the region. City reading huts themselves ceased to exist even before the war; the very phrase “reading hut” is a thing of the past. And after the war, libraries began to grow. The second city library (now library No. 4) and the first children's library (now library No. 24) opened in 1946. Three years later, in May 1949, documents were signed on the opening of city library No. 3 (40th Anniversary of October Street, 33). In the first half of the fifties, half of the current libraries in the city opened in the city: from 4 to 11. On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin - in 1969 and 1970 - seven more libraries appeared in Ulyanovsk. One of the last to be opened in the city was the 30th children's library (1990). In 1967, the second city library became the Central Library. Since 1974, the city has undergone centralization: the city's libraries have become a single library system. Its first director was L. A. Ogneva, then V. M. Poletaeva. Since 1992, the city's library system has been led by Honored Worker of the Russian Federation R.M. Gimatdinova.
SUBURBAN LIBRARIES
In December 2006, ten suburban libraries joined the city's library system. Each of them has its own story. It is possible that the date of opening of many rural libraries should be considered the date of opening of the hut-reading room. As we remember, they operated in almost every large village of the Ulyanovsk region. This is mentioned in the list of reading huts in the Ulyanovsk region, political education instructor at GORONO Vyugov. In a report dated September 26, 1936, he lists that reading huts operated in the villages of Zagudayevka and Volostnikovka. Biryuchevka, Novy Uren, Karlinsky, Seldi, Mostovaya, Shumovka, Vyshki, Poldomasovo, Isheevka, Vinnovka, Vyrypaevka and others... From Lebedinsky’s report on cultural work in the Ulyanovsk region for 1936, we learn that in the region there are 15 reading huts and 8 libraries. From the reports on each library it is clear that in the reading huts there is an accordion, a gramophone, a balalaika, and in some there is a radio. Most have books, but not all. Booksellers bring books to such reading huts.
From documents related to the work of reading huts, we learn that many libraries and reading huts are occupied “for other needs”: for example, in Bely Klyuch, Kuvshinovka and Elshanka grain was stored in reading huts.
An interesting fact: in the thirties, the press (in particular, the newspaper “Proletarsky Put”) willingly covered the work of reading huts. In the issue of September 1, 1937. We are talking about a hut-reading room with. White Key (now branch library No. 32). “...a good library, beautiful paintings, but the villagers rarely visit it. Izbach Sokolova (Lyakhova) poorly organizes cultural work.” Another note criticizes the chairman of the board of the Sviyaga collective farm, Tikhonov, who does not understand the role of the izbach. Tikhonov forces Izbacha Guryanov to be... a hairdresser. “If you don’t become a hairdresser,” Tikhonov threatens, “I’ll fire you from your job.”
CONCLUSION
Reconstructing the history of small and seemingly invisible cultural institutions is an important part of preserving social memory. It is possible that it was in such small cultural institutions that our parents or grandparents read their first books. Studying the history of individual libraries and the library system as a whole is an important part of the history of the cultural development of the city. Librarianship has always been an indicator of the level of literacy and intelligence of the people. Information about how many libraries there were in the city, where they were located, how they worked, and even what mistakes were made in relation to these cultural institutions is part of the history of the city. The reading hut from which this or that modern city library grew is like a “small homeland” that we love, no matter what. Unfortunately, it is impossible in one article to cover the history of the activities of our libraries from different points of view. The materials stored in our archives are enough for hundreds of articles. I would like to express my gratitude to the staff of the Ulyanovsk archives for their help in finding materials for research on the history of the reading huts and libraries of the city of Ulyanovsk.
NOTE: